Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Friday, November 09, 2012

Interior proposal would limit commercial oil shale development on federal lands in West

The Interior Department on Friday issued a final plan to close 1.6
million acres of federal land in the West originally slated for oil
shale development. The proposed plan would fence off a majority of the initial blueprint
laid out in the final days of the George W. Bush administration. It
faces a 30-day protest period and a 60-day process to ensure it is
consistent with local and state policies. After that, the department
would render a decision for implementation. The move is sure to rankle Republicans, who say President Obama’s grip on fossil fuel drilling in federal lands is too tight. Interior’s
Bureau of Land Management cited environmental concerns for the proposed
changes. Among other things, it excised lands with “wilderness
characteristics” and areas that conflicted with sage grouse habitats.Under the plan, 677,000 acres in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming would be
open for oil shale exploration. Another 130,000 acres in Utah would be
set aside for tar sands production. Bobby McEnaney, senior lands analyst with the Natural Resources Defense
Council, praised Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for the proposed final
plan. “By significantly reducing the acreage of wilderness potentially
available for leasing, Secretary Salazar is laying out a creative,
thoughtful and more responsible approach in managing some of our most
precious resources,” McEnaney said in a Friday statement...more